"More importantly, doesn't it kind of feel like it is when you keep having to see headlines like this? I mean, if this administration cared about The United States of America wouldn't it not include these non existent tax hikes, provisions, decrees, etc. in its legislation? Why do they keep not putting these in their agenda? What is there agenda here and how can we be sure it isn't not this?"

Obamacare will allow more people access to health care. The only way to pay for this increase in health care is have other people foot the bill, as those doctor's aren't working for free. As such, this will necessarily cause some people's bills to rise, either in the form of taxes or premiums. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as our country is wealthy and everyone should have access to health care, but to ignore that reality is disingenuous.

A better solution would be a guaranteed minimum income along with some sort of universal catastrophic coverage plan. Let the market work for non life threatening procedures, but make sure health care costs don't bankrupt anyone.

Well...if you squint a little...then the answer is sorta. It is taxing the provider of "luxury" plans. Which is being passed on to the end user in high premiums. And it is raising taxes in lots of other areas...some related...like medical devices (not that every Middle Class person has them).

But, it might be safer to say, "Is this Obamacare costing some people more than before?" And the answer is yes. And it is making it more affordable for some to have health insurance. But it really isn't lowering healthcare costs at all.

Where is my public option?!!!! Let the government compete with private insurance with a subsidized plan or plans based on income and then you might see a reduction in costs of health insurance. But I'm not sure how exactly you can lower the costs of healthcare in the 21st century. The costs of new drugs is astronomical and there is no guarantee of a return, and even when you do get it patented and the right to distribute your drug it may take up to 20 years to recover the years of research and production involved in creating the drug. Same with devices. You might be able to cut into care costs like hospitalization, wages for medical staff, and stupid over priced stuff like $10 aspirin. But a lot of medical care is expensive. Otherwise, we'd all have an MRI machine in our basements.

MattStafford:Obamacare will allow more people access to health care. The only way to pay for this increase in health care is have other people foot the bill, as those doctor's aren't working for free. As such, this will necessarily cause some people's bills to rise, either in the form of taxes or premiums. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as our country is wealthy and everyone should have access to health care, but to ignore that reality is disingenuous.

A better solution would be a guaranteed minimum income along with some sort of universal catastrophic coverage plan. Let the market work for non life threatening procedures, but make sure health care costs don't bankrupt anyone.

If this dude who routinely ignores reality is saying peeps is ignoring reality then someone must be ignoring reality, yo.

Two things I do know that happened in the past two years due to Obamacare:

1) OTC medications can no longer be paid out of my medical FSA2) The upper limit for a medical FSA was reduced from $5000/year to $2500/year

Will this hurt some people? Probably. Has my employer taken steps to make sure that employees who don't make much are impacted less? Yes. Is it worth it to ensure that everyone in the US has access to some level of health care? Oh yeah.

enry:Two things I do know that happened in the past two years due to Obamacare:

1) OTC medications can no longer be paid out of my medical FSA2) The upper limit for a medical FSA was reduced from $5000/year to $2500/year

Will this hurt some people? Probably. Has my employer taken steps to make sure that employees who don't make much are impacted less? Yes. Is it worth it to ensure that everyone in the US has access to some level of health care? Oh yeah.

FSA is a scam to distract you from higher deductibles and copayments allowing record high insurance company profits.

This appears to be one of those cases where "Middle Class" is a euphemism for "People just scraping by on $200K+/year"

Also, FTA:

Moreover, most calculations show that middle-income Americans are expected to get more in tax relief , such as health-care subsidies, than in additional tax hikes. CBO, for instance, indicates that middle-income Americans would receive about $1 trillion in premium credits in this 10-year period. So on a net basis, most middle-class Americans should expect to come out ahead.

We really need to stop calling it Obamacare. It was written and passed by congress, not Obama. Plus, before being passed it was so heavily altered by the Republicans due to demands by the insurance lobbyists that it hardly resembled what Obama proposed they do in the first place.

Twigz221:We really need to stop calling it Obamacare. It was written and passed by congress, not Obama. Plus, before being passed it was so heavily altered by the Republicans due to demands by the insurance lobbyists that it hardly resembled what Obama proposed they do in the first place.

We will only stop calling it Obamacare if it becomes clear that the program is a success.

/we don't want Nobama taking credit for something positive//in that unlikely event, we will not only start calling it the Affordable Care Act, we will act like we had always been calling it that

kid_icarus:Twigz221: We really need to stop calling it Obamacare. It was written and passed by congress, not Obama. Plus, before being passed it was so heavily altered by the Republicans due to demands by the insurance lobbyists that it hardly resembled what Obama proposed they do in the first place.

We will only stop calling it Obamacare if it becomes clear that the program is a success.

/we don't want Nobama taking credit for something positive//in that unlikely event, we will not only start calling it the Affordable Care Act, we will act like we had always been calling it that

kid_icarus:Twigz221: We really need to stop calling it Obamacare. It was written and passed by congress, not Obama. Plus, before being passed it was so heavily altered by the Republicans due to demands by the insurance lobbyists that it hardly resembled what Obama proposed they do in the first place.

We will only stop calling it Obamacare if it becomes clear that the program is a success.

/we don't want Nobama taking credit for something positive//in that unlikely event, we will not only start calling it the Affordable Care Act, we will act like we had always been calling it that

Rectal thermometers, however, will be officially renamed Obamamometers.